William World News William F. Yurasko's blog v.14 – Nats, Penn State, Redskins, greater DC , travel, more

A 9th inning rally to tie the game? An 11th inning explosion to win it? Yes, I’ll take it. The Washington Nationals are now 18-18 after taking two series in a row with a chance to sweep the Atlanta Braves tonight. If they can win in Hotlanta tonight, they would finish their road trip against [...]

Entering the sixth inning, there seemed to be a collective awareness of twitter that Washington Nationals pitcher Jordan Zimmermann had not allowed a runner to reach base. So, two pitches later Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz reached all the bases when he homered. That would prove to be enough for the visitors, but two errors [...]

I have gone back and forth on the Washington Nationals this offseason. They improved 10 games in 2010, despite a disappointing starting rotation. This season, the best part of 2010’s rotation, Stephen Strasburg, is recovering from Tommy John surgery. However, I expect the rotation to improve even without Strasburg. I expect a bounce-back season from [...]

ESPN’s Baseball Tonight visited the Washington Nationals at spring training in Viera. Tim Kurkjian and John Kruk talk to Jayson Werth and Stephen Strasburg and preview the 2011 season.

Earlier in the day, Mark Zuckerman sat in for another session of Beltway Baseball on CSN:

I never thought of my fellow Penn Stater Tom Verducci as writer of horror, but his column in the upcoming Sports Illustrated, Mechanical flaw will be red flag for Strasburg even after return is a tale of macabre that Washington Nationals fans are loathe to hear. Verducci goes into detail about why the “inverted W” [...]

Washington Nationals spring training 2011 is still fresh enough to be fun. Stephen Strasburg throws, you know.

SEEING RED: DC United has joined the Nationals (alternate), Capitals (home) and Redskins (home) in having a red jersey as part of their uniform. DCU’s new alternate jerseys debuted this past weekend. Later this season, the Wizards (Mystics too, I think) will also go red for their road jerseys for the 2011-2012 season. Somebody needs [...]

The Post checked in on Stephen Strasburg again and the good news is that he is “in the best shape” of his life which I was not expecting until the start of spring training. Except for his elbow of course. He expects to pick up a baseball again later this month for this first time [...]

The Washington Nationals offered arbitration to Adam Dunn. Nationals Journal takes a look at possible outcomes. I expect Dunn to decline arbitration and sign elsewhere, netting the Nats some draft picks.
In other recent Nats news:

Stephen Strasburg told Mike Rizzo (Nationals Enquirer) he is doing well. Strasburg also did not receive a single vote in the [...]

Dave Shenin wrote another excellent story on Stephen Strasburg in yesterday’s Post. Strasburg tore his UCL just as he was starting to find his way amongst his teammates. The reserved right-hander seemingly moves cautiously and deliberately in all aspects of his life and the clubhouse was no exception. It took a few months, but he [...]